At the monthly art gallery hop in Trinidad, Colorado, the crowds prove something important: The struggling community was a blank canvas all along.
“The art scene is absolutely the focal point,” said Mayor Karen Griego, a fourth-generation resident in the town of about 8,200 people. “I was really afraid for Trinidad, because I didn’t know what we could do to turn it around.”
Trinidad used to be the capital of southern Colorado coal. After that went away, bleak times followed. As recently as 15 years ago, the vacancy rate on Main Street was 70%, according to the mayor’s office.
But then, the town’s desperation turned to action. Residents organized workshops, galleries and artists’ housing. Slowly, a new vision emerged: Paint it, and they will come.
“We have people moving here to do their art, to sell their art,” Griego told CBS News.
Artists Leif Lathrop and Tracy Wahl moved to Trinidad six years ago. They say it was the community’s emphasis on the arts that led them there.
“Any place that I can go and I have an opportunity to do it and possibly flourish, that’s where I’m gonna go,” Lathrop said of his painting career.
Josh Blanchard oversees the Colorado Creative Districts program. It offers grants, tech assistance and seed money for entrepreneurs and nonprofits, with an emphasis on small towns. He says 30 communities across Colorado have certified creative districts.
“It has to include community buy-in,” Blanchard told CBS News.
As an arts hub, Trinidad now sees itself as a “baby” Santa Fe, New Mexico.
For Wahl, a painter, the community’s focus on the arts “creates an expectation of success” that builds upon itself once artists believe it’s somewhere they can make a living.
But there’s still more work to be done for rebuilding the community.
“We didn’t get in this situation overnight, and we’re not gonna get ourselves out of it overnight,” Griego said.
